Prior to joining the Peace Corps, I sought a lot of advice about development work and the one line that I remember from a beleaguered aid worker in Africa said, “Its like shoveling shit upstream!” I always keep this in mind so I can only blame myself for knowing exactly what I was getting into. I don’t think I’ve even begun to scoop an ounce of it yet, but it sure is proving to be very frustrating work.
Earlier this year, just two months into our training as NGO development volunteers, we received news that the Uzbek government had tightened controls over all NGO activities in the country – including those of international NGO’s: this involved re-registering with the Ministry of Justice (with some NGOs’ bank accounts frozen until approval), new legislation that required all international donor transactions to local NGO’s be conducted via bank transfers, making cash transactions illegal, as well as re-issuing all foreign national visas. Some believe that the revolutionary events in Georgia, which occurred around the same time, triggered this reaction by the Uzbek government.
The fall-out from all of this is that some NGO’s did not get re-registered so are no longer able to operate in this country, particularly those suspected of conducting activities which undermine the national interest. (See Soros Article) Some did receive re-registration, but with certain restrictive terms, details of which I am not aware. This move is not only discouraging for all other international NGO’s working in Uzbekistan, but it is especially disheartening for struggling local NGO’s to watch their once supportive and rich funding source get royally kicked out of the country. The national leader even went as far as appearing on national television to say that Uzbekistan does not need the services of NGO’s anyway. (So then I wonder why this government invited Peace Corps volunteers into the country because we wouldn’t be here without their formal request.)
Through all of this I have remained quiet – outraged, but quietly hoping the knee-jerk reaction of a paranoid government would end – until now. It is coming on three weeks since my NGO’s bank accounts have been frozen, for no explainable reason except that the government is in the process of forming an NGO grants oversight committee. We are given no answers, or timeframes for how long this will last and we have been asked to submit details of every single one of our programs to the bank, whom I believe is just a go-between for the government. Other NGO’s may not be in such a tight predicament if they have been taking their grants in cash from donors. Recent actions by the government seem to encourage these now illegal transactions.
But the NGO where I work has done all the right things and they follow all the arcane rules. Our work in the rural communities throughout the Andijon boarder region with Kyrgyztan have produced great results. We have received grants from major donors like the World Bank and other major partners, and are determined to carry out our projects. However, with frozen bank accounts and increasingly disparaging sentiments from the government, we are locked in inaction.
Who benefits from all of this is unclear to me at this point, but it is clear who loses – all the people whom we endeavor to help who are caught within the spiral of political paranoia that is clearly upstream from where we sit.
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